The Chicago Gypsies

This is a play for family audiences about the migratory life of a "show business" child during the Great Depression. Carolina Lee, called "Charley," is the youngest actress in the company that suddenly finds itself stranded, and she becomes a "drop-in" at the local school, where "recess is more like a Roman coliseum." Here is a play that connects rich, fully realized characters from three generations. Audiences warm to Charley's temperamental actress-mother; her loving, song-and-dance-man of a father; and Charley's "illegitimate adopted grandmothers." While set in the Depression, the "Chicago gypsies" stubbornly see their way through these "worst of times" to the "best of times" in a regenerative reunion that makes these odd yet ordinary people shine with the miracle of loving, quiet survival.